Who's got Switzerland's Gold?

El_Jost wrote:

Anyone know where it has gone?

My guess: the general public of China, India and points in between. If that's so, then the Swiss Central Bank can whistle for what it has leased or sold. Actually, all the West's Central Banks have almost certainly written gold out of their future plans. If/when today's currencies fall away in value, they will be easily replaced with new fiat currencies, backed by their governments' promises to pay. Over and over again, as needed. And in that case, the market in gold will become a free market, with prices based on supply and demand - and with NO Western currency dependent on it (gold) in any way.

Those are my guesses, El. I'll be interested in yours.

Hi Gordon,
Yes, I think I concur with your guesses. Possibly one could also include some of Western elites such as the owners of banks etc. who would also like to salt away some of their fiat paper debt money for something more substantial. It is said that fine art, high-end properties, diamonds are also being actively sought these days.
Regarding currencies crashing: What you mention is one scenario, i.e. that a new fiat currency (SDRs?) replace the existing debt money system based on the dollar.
Another is that the loss of confidence is so great, in currency and government, that a period of total chaos with civil unrest prevails - something like at the Fall of Rome. One thing many pundits do say is that the vulnerability of today's world monetary system is bigger now than it has ever been in the whole history of the world, which is one reason why predictions are very difficult, if not impossible.
In this situation I would naturally like to see Switzerland with as much gold as possible. If Switzerland has made good choices in the past it is not because of its politicians but more because of its political system. In it the Sovereign who has the last word is not a head of state...but is "Das Volk" (i.e. the people). But in the last instance we cannot rely on the government to do the right thing; in the end each individual is responsible for him/herself and should do whatever he/she thinks is best to weather whatever our unpredictable future throws at us.

Might be others in India got it but i didn't..............may be i am not in India right now...............

El. I suspect - suspect, only - that the Swiss Central Bankers have been suborned, and have sold their country down the river. It pains me to say that, because Switzerland has a long history of probity. But if they have indeed sold or leased their gold, then they are guilty of treason, and that's all there is to it. I hope I'm wrong.

Will there be a period of civil unrest? Maybe, but if so it will be short-lived. There's a lot of talk in the US prepper community on how to survive a SHTF situation, but I think they're spitting into the wind. The US government has way too much firepower to be thwarted. In Europe, governments tend to be more flexible, and the general publics tend to be more accommodating. In Greece, for example, the economic mess there has resulted in a few suicides, that's all. In China and Russia, the governments are pretty brutal at the best of times. In the rest of the world, the US will use any civil disturbances to expand its empire, and it has the firepower to do it. Example: the kidnapping of a couple of hundred children in Nigeria is being used as the excuse to invade that nation. (And I have to say that comparisons with Rome should be with the rise of the empire, not the fall! US imperialism has a lot of life in it yet, I'm sorry to say.)

As a users' manual, "1984" is proving its worth.

Interesting viewpoints, though quite different from mine in some respects.

From what I read in history the outcome of wars is usually decided by those in charge of the money coffers, not the generals.
In the same way empires have usually collapsed when the source of wealth diminishes. And then they collapses from the outlying regions inwards to the centre with each loss of its dominions reducing its income. I see America's future prospects being intimately tied up to the continued enforcement of the petro dollar as well as the dollar remaining the world's reserve currency. All indications right now suggest that this is not the case. IMO all this as well as currency manipulation as its last defence makes striking parallels to the downfall of other empires.

But the longer things hold out the better for the older folks among us. A case of apres nous, le deluge. 

El_Jost wrote:

But the longer things hold out the better for the older folks among us.

Yes, indeed. All we can do for our successors in our families is to see that they are adequately prepared to cope with the troubles in store. If they can become broadly educated enough (and I don't mean merely schooled) to be able to earn a modest living in one or more foreign languages, in one or more foreign countries, they will survive. A waitress with two languages will be safer than a PhD with only one.

aryavrat wrote:

Might be others in India got it but i didn't..............may be i am not in India right now...............

Then that might just be a diplomatic denial.

Turd Ferguson always gave the best Jeopardy answers.